Machine-learning-guided evolution makes a plant Rubisco 29% faster (MIT, Stanford, ANU
Science Advances)
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Result confirmed
- Our reporting
- High confidence
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- Peer-reviewed
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 12 October 2026
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Key facts
- Paper: ‘Machine learning–assisted directed evolution of plant Rubisco’, Science Advances 12(41), doi 10.1126/sciadv.aeh3246; authors Julie L. McDonald, Jiacheng Lin, Yunlong Zhao, Brian L. Hie, Rosemary Birch, Mary Gehring, Bryan D. Bryson, Spencer M. Whitney, Matthew D. Shoulders, Robert H. Wilson (MIT; Stanford; Australian National University)
- Method (abstract): ‘We applied the structure-informed machine learning (ML) model ESM-IF1 to identify plausible amino acid sites in the large subunit of Nicotiana tabacum Rubisco to target for directed evolution’, followed by selection in Rubisco-dependent Escherichia coli
- Result (abstract): ‘the T391I substitution improved carboxylation rate by 29% and aerobic carboxylation efficiency by 43%’
- Abstract: several improved variants ‘carried amino acid changes not found in the evolutionary lineage of plants, despite being assembly competent in plant chloroplasts’
- Limits: the abstract reports enzyme kinetics, not crop yield; it speaks of ‘potential for enhancing crop productivity’. Written from the abstract (Crossref); the full text was not read
What happened
Rubisco catalyses the step of photosynthesis that captures CO₂. It is slow and inefficient and, in the words of the abstract, “has proven challenging to engineer”. The MIT-led team used ESM-IF1, an inverse-folding protein model, to pick positions in the tobacco enzyme where changes were plausible, built libraries at those positions and let bacteria that depend on Rubisco select the better variants. Some winning mutations do not occur in any plant lineage.
Why it matters
“A better Rubisco” is on the list of grand challenges for biology (see the related entry). This is a peer-reviewed, lab-validated step on a plant enzyme, using a small specialised model as a guide for experiments. It is an enzyme-level gain, not yet a demonstrated gain in crop yield.
Sources
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Changes
- Filed from the Science Advances table of contents and the Crossref abstract